Football Performance The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal has said that the Government of India has considered the proposal of All India Football Federation (AIFF) and supported their bid to host Under-17 FIFA World Cup in India in 2017. AIFF have informed that six venues have been finalised in consultation with FIFA technical team and the venues are to be upgraded to be compliant with FIFA requirements. The venues are not yet compliant to FIFA standards and the infrastructure requirement for different venues has been indicated by FIFA to the venue owners. Based on this, the estimates for each venue have been finalised by the venue owners. To monitor the progress of work in order to make the venues ready well before the event, the organiser of the event namely, AIFF has constituted Local Organising Committees at various levels consisting of officials from State Governments, FIFA, AIFF, etc. All venues are to be ready well before the date of the tournament in 2017 to be decided by FIFA in consultation with AIFF etc. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today shri Sonowal said that Rs.95.00 crore was approved by the Cabinet in 2013 as assistance to upgradation of the venues and the associated infrastructure. In addition, Cabinet has approved Rs.25 crores to be used as contingency for the opening and closing ceremonies, in case the AIFF is not able to raise the amount through sponsorship, to meet the requirements prescribed by FIFA for hosting such tournaments.
